May 25, 2013

If these don't scream Summer, then I don't know what does. Actually a whole lot of things scream summer more than these nails, but I think they're pretty summery.

Wet n Wild Tropicalia is a fun, juicy coral which makes me think of fruit and stuff. Summery things. China Glaze Angel Wings is a perfect beachy gold, like shimmery grains of sand. I did 2 coats of each polish and n my accent nail, did a freehand cheetah print with a pink Kiss nail art polish.

The weather has been beautiful here lately, sunny and windy and perfect. I'm kind of apprehensive about how hot it'll be in the full bloom of Summer though. That'll be when I live at the beach. We're planning to go to Vegas at the end of July and I am excited! I've never been there, so for an Aussie girl like myself it's just the stuff of movies to me. Anyone have any recommendations as to what we should do and see while we're there? My husband has been before, but I don't know if I should trust the sightseeing to him lol.

May 22, 2013

I bought Zoya Frida a while ago when Zoya had the 3 free promo and this is the first time I've used it! I have been meaning to do some glitter sandwiches with it and for my first, I layered it with NYC Starry Silver Glitter.

This is 2 coats of Zoya Frida, 1 coat of NYC Starry Silver Glitter and 1 more coat of Frida.

I think Frida is a fun colour for Summer and can't wait to do more with it! I want to try a syrup mani :)

May 16, 2013

Narcissistic and probably not true, but I love it anyway! I had seen shirts with 'My Blog is Bigger Than Yours' on them before, but I wanted one with my blog URL on it. Happily for me, I was contacted by Dress United (who are owned by the same company I got my business cards from) to create a custom shirt through their website.

Here are some more pics of the front and back.

The process was very easy and they give you the option to either upload your own image or use their text and clip art to create your t-shirt. The shirt I chose is a 100% combed cotton American Apparel shirt and I read that if you unsure about sizing, go up a size as they are fitted. The shirt is comfortable and feels good quality and the printing is clear and perfect. It definitely doesn't feel like one of those cheapo shirts that peel when you wash it. With a design on both the front and back and the better quality shirt the price ended up being around $30, but they have many other styles to choose from, some cheaper. I like the fact that you get such a large area for your design on both sides, which along with the great printing quality I feel justifies the price. Certain other t-shirt websites only give you a very small area to work with and it doesn't look as good or allow you as much freedom with the design.

I really love my shirt and it's a good way to shamelessly promote my blog ^_^

Dress United have given me a discount code for my readers! Go to http://www.dressunited.com/redeem and type in the code BLOG30OFF4U. This
code will give you 30% off your first order and free shipping in the US.

May 15, 2013

If there's one big hair peeve that I have, it's lack of volume. My hair is fine and can sometimes look a bit like an afghan hound's ears, sticking to my head (you just pictured me with afghan ears, didn't you). Well, to look less houndish, I usually use some type of volumising product - but sprays and mousse tend to be sticky and end up making my hair look clumpy and oily. When I heard about Got2b POWDER'ful, I was interested to see how the powder formula would work in my fine, flyaway hair.

The powder looks like baby powder, but feels tackier and disappears when you rub your hands together.When I rubbed it into my hair, I could feel it grabbing onto my roots and slightly thickening the texture. Because it turns invisible after rubbing, there's no white/greyish cast to the hair at all which you get if you use baby powder or some dry shampoos.

Before using Got2b POWDER'ful

After using Got2b POWDER'ful

I liked the volume boost the powder gave me, I didn't use a huge amount just what you see in the picture of the powder above. I did notice that after a couple of hours it starts to fall a little, but you can reactivate it by just rubbing with your fingers at your roots, no need to add more powder. I think it's a great product for natural volume that leaves your hair with a soft, light texture and won't make it heavy or oily. It may not be your cup of tea if you prefer big, dramatic volume - for that you'll still need a teasing comb and some hairspray.

I would probably purchase this product when I run out, as I have been enjoying using it. My hair doesn't play well with some products, as it's easily weighed down, so I love that POWDER'ful still leaves it feeling soft and natural. I do wish it lasted a bit longer without having to reactivate it, so if I found something that worked better I'd consider that instead. So far though, this is the best natural looking volumiser I have used.

What do you usually use to volumise your hair? Do you like natural volume or big Texas style hair? :p

May 14, 2013

Last year, I completely fried my hair with bleach. I didn't take the proper precautions before bleaching it (such as deep conditioning) and the hair treatments/conditioners I tried were only a temporary fix, so my hair was EXTREMELY dry and needed to go. Yes, it just needed to step on out and leave. One night, I was trying to comb a huge knot out of my straw-like locks and I had so much breakage, I myself reached the breaking point....

So this happened:

And then I looked like this:

......

Sorry, it's unbrushed and probably hadn't been washed for a couple of days (I have 3 kids under 6, ok?)...... Yeah it was pretty horrific. We were going to a wedding that weekend and I wanted my hair to look nice, so I decided to get it properly styled at a salon - that DIY look just wasn't cutting it ('cutting' it, get i-- yeah).

First let me show you the hairstyle I wanted; I have been completely obsessed with Yoon Eun-Hye's hair in the K drama, My Fair Lady (Or Taking Care of the Young Lady). It's a wavy, asymmetrical bob that just looks so fresh and stylish on her and I hoped that it would revitalise my near-to-death hair!

Isn't it cute?

The last time I got my hair cut was when I was still in Orange County,
so I searched online and found a salon called Beauty By Bee quite near to my house that had
good reviews on Yelp. I made an appointment for Saturday morning and it
was pretty quiet at that time.The salon is bright and clean, despite being in the back of a building complex, behind a fitness centre.

My stylist was Kim and she was very friendly and professional. I did feel that she was rushing a bit, but that may have been because I asked at the last minute if I could get my eyebrows done as well and she was trying to make sure the wax technician could fit me into the break she had between clients. Despite doing things quickly, she was very thorough and gave me a good shampoo & condition, cut my hair, then blow dried it and cut it some more. She dried it straight so she could see the shape of the cut better and make sure everything was even.

And the result?

I am loving it!! It looks edgy and modern, not like an old lady 'mom haircut' if you know what I mean. Kim did the layers beautifully and I love the way she blended the difference in length. It looks amazing straight, but the best part is that it looks great with hardly ANY styling. In the picture below, I washed my hair and then combed it while wet, left it to air dry, put in a small amount of volumising powder and this was the result:

The next day I didn't even have to do anything, I woke up and it still looked great! My dreams of easy, less than 5 minute styling have come truuue!!! I'm so so so happy with my hair and will definitely be back to pay Kim another visit :)

I'm loving shorter hair especially since the weather is heating up here. No hot and sweaty back of the neck for me. Do you like to cut your hair in warmer weather?

May 13, 2013

I have one of the sold out RiRi ♥ MAC RiRi Woo lipsticks to give away! This lipstick has been a huge talking point ever since it was first announced that Rihanna would be doing a MAC collection. Not surprisingly, considering all the hype, it sold out in 3 hours! You wont be able to buy it again until June, so to tide you over until then here's a chance to win it. You can check out my review and more photos here.

This giveaway is open internationally and you can enter using the Rafflecopter widget below :)

May 11, 2013

So, by now you should have heard the hype over the MAC x Rihanna collaboration 'RiRi ♥ MAC' and its signature lipstick, RiRi Woo. I was lucky (meaning patient enough to sit on my phone for 2 hours) to snag 2 of these babies! One is for me and one is to give away to one of you lovely readers ;)

I know there are quite a few other people reviewing RiRi Woo, but I wanted to show you how it looks on my skintone which has a warm/yellow undertone. I honestly believe that this shade looks good on everyone, no matter the skin colour; it's a beautiful universal lipstick and I say kudos to Rihanna for making sure it was wearable. Unlike other certain music divas.... *cough*nickiminaj*cough* with a certain lipstick that made anyone darker than a snowflake look like Tyrone Biggums *cough*vivaglamnicki2*cough* >_>

Don't know why there is such a disparity between my skin colour in natural light as opposed to flash... I'd say it's somewhere in between?

The finish is described as 'Retro Matte' and it is a beautiful, matte velvet red which takes its inspiration from the iconic MAC
lipstick, Ruby Woo. I don't own Ruby Woo, but from what I've seen RiRi
Woo is slightly richer, darker and bluer-toned, leaving Ruby Woo looking almost
like a tomato red in comparison. It is also more of a velvety matte,
rather than a satin matte.

RiRi Woo isn't a creamy lipstick, so it does take some maneuvering and a careful hand to apply, but it is beautifully opaque and smooth once on. It doesn't settle into lines or show your dry/flaky patches as a lot of other matte lipsticks do. I am ABSOLUTELY in love with the look RiRi Woo has, it's so chic and vintage. I own 2 other matte red lip products, but the quality and finish of RiRi Woo is much more superior. It was slightly drying, but not as much as I expected it to be and nothing a touch of lipbalm didn't fix. One thing I did notice was that after eating it did wear more on the inside and left that dreaded ring around the outer edge of my lips, so a touchup was necessary. This was probably because I applied lip balm over it to avoid it drying my lips out, in hindsight, I probably could have skipped the balm. I was able to drink without it fading, though.

This is actually my very first MAC purchase, ever. And needless to say, I do see what the hype is all about. I am in love with this lipstick and it will henceforth be my go to red lip! Yes, you can find cheaper matte red lipsticks, but I feel like the formula and finish are really worth the higher price tag. Honestly, it may be subtle, but I do think RiRi Woo is pretty unique with its soft as velvet retro glam.

May 7, 2013

This Polish Days theme is the Number 5, and it's completely and utterly perfect for me.

This month is my 5th wedding anniversary! I can't believe it's already been 5 years since my husband and I were married :) It's been ups and downs, difficulties and lots of precious moments and I wouldn't change the last 5 years for anything.

To commemorate this happy occasion, I decided to put a few things together in a manicure that mean a lot to me.

1.The beautiful rose shade with pink shimmer is OPI We Met On The Internet; a polish I just had to have as soon as I heard the name. My husband and I met way back in 04 on a website called Gaia Online, a community forum for anime geeks like us. We then reluctantly (since we were both against internet relationships) fell in love.
2. The Kleancolor moon glitter polish was part of my anniversary gift from my husband, he said it reminded him of Sailor Moon - one of my lifetime obsessions.
3. The moons and roses are a tribute to Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Mask's love! The best love story ever, my husband is my very own Tuxedo Mask :p

The manicure is two coats of OPI We Met On The Internet, with one dabbed coat of Kleancolor Pinky Moon except on the ring finger. The ring finger is two coats of China Glaze Glistening Snow with freehanded roses done in We Met On The Internet, WnW Black Creme for the swirls and Sinful Colors Open Seas for the leaves.

Beauty blogger, part time emcee, full time mama, anime nerd, gyaru & ulzzang fan. I love Japanese & Korean food, culture, fashion, beauty, music and tv dramas. Always trying something new, (slightly) self obsessed and in love with cosmetics, technology and photography. A Eurasian Australian living and loving in sunny Southern California.

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